Glass vessels are ubiquitous in modern life. Often, such vessels are more than just functional containers. Various products, such as food products, wine, liquor, cosmetics, and expensive fragrances are presented in bottles or other vessels having artistic form. Sculpted bottle interiors or complex bottle exteriors, would be desirable for branding, marketing, and artistic purposes. Additionally, complex glass vessels may be desirable in an applied context, for example in the scientific or industrial fields, where complex vessel interiors are functional, for example as in microfluidics.
Glass vessels having complex interior three dimensional shapes would have considerable artful appeal and visual interest. However, in the 4,500 year history of glass making, methods of producing a vessel with a formed interior are limited, and making an enclosed vessel with a highly complex, artfully sculpted interior has been unobtainable. Likewise, making complex exteriors, for example with features having conflicting orientations, has been costly and has been limited to hand made artisanal methods, and has not been attainable by scalable, industrial means.
A 1928 patent, French Patent Number 644,690, by Gosselin and Caron, entitled “Procede de Fabrication des Objets en Verre,” proposes a method to shape the interior space of a glass vessel with a core made from metal or an “easily destroyed substance,” the identity of which easily destroyed substance is not specified beyond stating that materials used in the foundry industry may serve as a guide.
United States Patent Application Publication Number 20120297831, by Bruneau et al., entitled “Method and Installation for Manufacturing a Glass Bottle” describes a process for forming two half bottles, wherein the interior surface of the half bottles is shaped by means of a punch, followed by hot hot-welding the two halves to make a finished bottle. This method does not allow for monolithic production of vessels having a decorated interior from a single mold.
Another proposed method of sculpting a vessel's interior is the use of a punch having features that are imprinted on hot glass, for example as described in United States Patent Application Publication Number 20130145797, by Lequien et al, entitled “Method and Device for Forming a Hollow Glass Item.” This method relies on removal of the punch while the glass is still hot and malleable and appears limited in the extent of non-draftable features that can be made. In addition, one side of the vessel must be left open to remove the punch, and then closed by an additional piece.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,333,287, by Lonsway et al., entitled “Bottle Neck with Internal Embossments and Method Manufacture,” describes a method of forming ribs and other raised structures in the neck of a bottle, such as a longneck beer bottle. The rib features are apparently formed by pressing and the method appears limited in the range of forms that may be made.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,063, by Kramer et al., entitled “Apparatus for Producing Blown Hollow Glass Objects,” describes a method of shaping the interior of a bottle by inserting a plunger into the bottle interior and imprinting a pattern on the heated glass. The geometry of the plunger is limited because it must be withdrawn from the bottle's mouth, which greatly limits the diversity of forms that can be made by the plunger.
European Patent Number 0296468, by Mannl, entitled “Profiliertes Flaschchen Aus Glas” describes a bottle having a sculpted interior consisting of longitudinal features. The bottles are produced by drawing shaped tubing, sectioning the tubing, and further processing the sections to create vessels.
Recently, a method of forming glass vessels having a sculpted interior has been demonstrated, as described in United States Patent Application Publication Number 20150017351, by Markel, entitled “Method for Making Sculptural Interior of a Vessel and Vessels Made Thereby.” In this prior art technique, a textile core is inflated within a glass parison and the resulting vessel's interior will conform to the shape of the inflated textile core, which core can be deflated and withdrawn after the glass anneals. This method produces complex interiors that are not possible to make using a standard parison blow, however, the complexity of the core is limited to shapes and features that can be created in a sewn, or computerized knit, crocheted, or woven textile form. The creation of such forms remains dependent on the abilities of computerized knitting, weaving, and crocheting apparatuses, which, at this time, adds expense and complexity to the process.
In summary, none of the previously proposed or demonstrated methodologies enable the formation of diverse complex three dimensional interior forms within a glass vessel in a scalable process. Accordingly, remains a need in the art for a novel methods of making glass vessels with hollow interiors, wherein complex interior and/or exterior features can be made with a simplified one-piece process which is cost effective, and industrially scalable.